WISDOM Wednesday: Botox® to the Rescue!

  This story was written by Malati Marlene Shinazy

My mother had a few warnings that resonate continually in my mind like humming birds dive-bombing past my head on their way to the feeder:

#1.  If you laugh all day, you’ll cry all night!

#2. Put on sunscreen or you’ll end up looking like an old leather purse!

#3.  Keep frowning like that and your forehead will stick in that position!

Many of these warnings were meant to scare us children into one behavior or another, so we generally ignored her.  Little did I know, however, that genetics lends some credence to caution #3.

Recently, Shinazy, BOBB’s publisher and my sister, wrote a story proudly promoting the secondary use of various tapes for reducing frown lines.

“Ha!” I thought, suddenly envious, “Easy for you to say.”

“While we both inherited extraordinary breathtaking beauty and brilliant minds (place smile here); you inherited most of the best genes in our family“:

·         “You are the marathon-running-every-continent-on-earth sister.”

·         “I am the sister who, like our grandmother, trips over small twigs and pebbles.”

·         “You are the sister who has hardly-worth-mentioning salt-and-pepper hair.”

·         “I am the sister with super-wide silver streaks at my temples -- resembling a skunk ready to ruin everyone’s day.”

·         “And, while you can joke about those itty-bitty lines between your brows that you affectionately refer to as wrinkles,”

·         “My brow creases would need surgical retractors to hold them apart.”

I’m not sure my mother’s warning that my tendency to chronically worry and frown as a child, adolescent, young adult, and older boomer would force the corrugator supercilii and procerus muscles to fix into permanent contractions.

To me it hardly matters.  When my staff kept asking me if I were angry or upset upon arriving at the office first thing in the morning – after I’d had a great night’s sleep, peace-inducing meditation and a satisfying cup of coffee, I started my hunt for Botox® Cosmetic.

Now, periodically, I invest in a Botox® treatment -- the savior of genetically compromised sisters.  I advise the younger members of our family to entrust their foreheads only to professionals like a Registered Nurse at a Board Certified Dermatologist or Cosmetic Surgeon’s office --- I have found that these specialists unfailingly inject the Botox® in such a precise manner, it removes involuntary scowl lines, yet still enables me to animate my face -- unlike many celebrities we know who sport a fixed-expression countenance after their Botox® treatment.

And, I give thanks to all those scientists who discovered at least 20 medically critical uses for Botox® before they found its benefit for people like me, a boomer who wants to look happy and cheerful whenever I am happy and cheerful.

My sister may have a few genetic advantages.  I have Botox® Cosmetic.

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Please Note: This story is the personal opinion of the writer. She was not compensated by any product or service provider.